State of the art review and future directions in oil spill modeling

Abstract

A review of the state of the art in oil spill modeling, focused on the period from 2000 to present is provided. The review begins with an overview of the current structure of spill models and some lessons learned from model development and application and then provides guiding principles that govern the development of the current generation of spill models. A review of the basic structure of spill models, and new developments in specific transport and fate processes; including surface and subsurface transport, spreading, evaporation, dissolution, entrainment and oil droplet size distributions, emulsification, degradation, and sediment oil interaction are presented. The paper concludes with thoughts on future directions in the field with a primary focus on advancements in handling interactions between Lagrangian elements.

Keywords: Biodegradation; Dissolution; Emulsification; Entrainment and droplet size distributions; Evaporation; Lagrangian elements; Oil sediment interaction; Oil spill modeling; Spherical particle hydrodynamics; Spreading; Surface and subsurface transport; Transport and fate processes.